Linear and skull growth in extremely low birth weight babies with rickets of prematurity.

Preterm birth results in poor accretion of bone minerals and development of rickets of prematurity. Poor skeletal growth is one of the long term morbidities of this condition, which is said to have a lesser effect on the skull growth. The present study was a retrospective observational study to compare the effect of rickets of prematurity on the linear and skull growth in the first year of life. In this retrospective analysis, 1 y follow-up records of extremely low birth weight (ELBW) babies born in five consecutive years and their anthropometric data were evaluated. ELBW babies with confirmed rickets of prematurity were taken as the study group and those without were taken as the control group and anthropometric values (head size and length) at various ages in the first year of life were compared using relevant statistical software. Both the lengths and head sizes of the babies in the two groups were found to be comparable until the age of 12 mo.